Homelessness and Poverty in the Public Education System: An Intro to Our Blog Series

This is a re-post from our partner, Firesteel, from Sept. 2, 2014. This week, Firesteel began publishing an insightful seven-part series on homelessness in the classroom, written by our project coordinator, Perry Firth. Homelessness affects more than 30,000 school-age children in Washington state.The series also includes brand-new infographics, designed by our digital design assistant, Krista Kent (see below). Read and share!

Children know when they are falling behind academically. As they continue to struggle, they can develop both low self esteem and a dislike of school. That is why it is so essential that children who need extra help get it. Image from pixabay.com.

As the new school year starts, teachers face many challenges. So do children who are dealing with homelessness and poverty. And this couldn’t be truer than for impoverished children who are also in need of special education services. With parents focusing on day-to-day survival and too busy to consistently advocate for their needs, children who are homeless may fail to receive the services they need to succeed in school.

The result is that children already harmed by their living circumstances can fall even further behind. Therefore, adults who work with children in poverty and homelessness need to understand how this environment influences academic skill and emotional development, and how it relates to special education needs.

So, we present this seven-part series on how homelessness and poverty affect the development of children, and how this can show up in the education system. Thanks to Perry Firth for contributing this important series.

Read the full post here and follow the seven-part series on Firesteel.

Also, check out these new infographics created for the series by our digital design assistant, Krista Kent.